Thursday, August 29, 2013



Complete DHS Daily Report for August 29, 2013

Daily Report

Top Stories

 • A section of southbound Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, Virginia, could be closed for up to 10 days after a scheduled blast caused a crack in an unstable slope near the highway to grow. – Roanoke Times

6. August 28, Roanoke Times – (Virginia) Unstable slope could close I-81 south in Montgomery Co. for several days. A section of southbound Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, Virginia, was closed August 27 and could be closed for up to 10 days after a scheduled blast caused a crack in an unstable slope near the highway to grow to about 120 feet in length. Source: http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/2183185-12/unstable-slope-could-close-i-81-south-in-montgomery.html\

 • Firefighters reached 23 percent containment of California’s Rim Fire August 28 as it burned 187,466 acres. – Los Angeles Times

15. August 28, Los Angeles Times – (California) Containment of Yosemite fire now 23% as blaze climbs record books. Firefighters reached 23 percent containment of California’s Rim Fire as it burned 187,466 acres August 28. More evacuations orders were announced for residents in the fire’s path after the blaze destroyed 111 buildings, including 31 homes. Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rim-fire-wednesday-20130828,0,248400.story

 • Hacktivists caused disruptions and redirects on Web sites belonging to the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and Twitter after they breached a domain registration and hosting company and modified the sites’ DNS records. – Softpedia  
See item 22 below in the Information Technology Sector

 • A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to installing backdoors on several government, university, telecoms, and commercial systems and offering access to them in exchange for payment. – Softpedia See item 23 below in the Information Technology Sector

Details

Banking and Finance Sector

2. August 27, Reuters – (International) JPMorgan’s former ‘London Whale’ supervisor arrested in Spain. A former JP Morgan Chase trader was arrested in Spain and faces extradition to the U.S. for allegedly trying to inflate the value of trading positions during a $6.2 billion financial scandal. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/27/us-jpmorgan-whale-idUSBRE97Q0D620130827

3. August 27, IDG News Service – (International) Cybercrime service automates creation of fake scanned IDs, other identity verification documents. Researchers at Group-IB identified a new Web-based cybercrime service that automates the creation of various forms of fake identification including passports, banking statements, and utility bills. Source: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/082713-cybercrime-service-automates-creation-of-273262.html

4. August 27, CNN (Nevada) Las Vegas Sands resolves laundering cases with $47 million deal. The U.S. Department of Justice and casino operator Las Vegas Sands agreed to a $47 million settlement in an non-prosecution agreement for the casino to avoid charges over its failure to report suspicious money wiring transactions by an alleged drug kingpin. Source: http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/27/news/companies/las-vegas-sands/index.html

5. August 26, Bloomberg News – (New York) Three charged with stealing Flow Traders trading software. Two former Flow Traders employees and one other individual were charged with allegedly stealing the firm’s electronic trading software and using it to create their own trading company. Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-26/three-charged-with-stealing-flow-traders-trading-software.html

Information Technology Sector

22. August 28, Softpedia – (International) Syrian Electronic Army hacks Australian internet company, NYT and Twitter disrupted. Members of the Syrian Electronic Army hacktivist group caused disruptions and redirects on Web sites belonging to the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and Twitter August 27 after they breached Australian domain registration and hosting company Melbourne IT and modified the sites’ DNS records. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Syrian-Electronic-Army-Hacks-Australian-Internet-Company-NYT-and-Twitter-Disrupted-378637.shtml

23. August 28, Softpedia – (International) Hacker admits to selling access to U.S. Energy Department computers. A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to installing backdoors on several government, university, telecoms, and commercial systems and offering access to them in exchange for payment. Among others, the man offered undercover agents access to U.S. Department of Energy supercomputers that he had compromised via universities that had access to them. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Hacker-Admits-Selling-Access-to-US-Energy-Department-Computers-378659.shtml

24. August 28, Softpedia – (International) Cloud hosting company DigitalOcean hit by DDoS attack. Cloud hosting service provider DigitalOcean announced that it was the target of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack August 28 that disrupted the company’s Web site and control panel. Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cloud-Hosting-Company-DigitalOcean-Hit-by-DDOS-Attack-378713.shtml

Communications Sector

25. August 28, The Register – (International) Eggheads turn Motorola feature phone into CITYWIDE GSM jammer. Research presenting at the 22nd USENIX Security Symposium showed how an attacker could take advantage of a vulnerability in the GSM communications protocol to deny service to a network or individual user by using a phone to masquerade as another handset and prevent the original from establishing an authenticated connection. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/28/german_boffins_mod_moto_into_citywide_gsm_jammer/

26. August 27, WRAL 5 Raleigh – (North Carolina) Severed cable affecting Robbins 911 service repaired. A CenturyLink fiber-optic cable along North Carolina highway 24/27 was cut August 27, causing a telephone service outage which affected phone and 9-1-1 services for several hours before being repaired. Source: http://www.wral.com/severed-cable-affecting-robbins-911-service-repaired/12822445/

For another story, see item 23 above in the Information Technology Sector